Nissan Delawing Comes Back

After their big misfortune at the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours, Team Nissan DeltaWing is a ti again, preparing for its second ever race at Petit Le Mans in America. This time they don’t want to leave anything to chance.

Led by Nissan Americas Vice-Chairman, Bill Kruger, the announcement took place today at Nissan’s North American headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. Designed and built with the aim of completing the famous Le Mans 24 Hours using half the fuel and half the tyres of contemporary sports prototypes, Nissan DeltaWing was forced to retire from the French endurance classic after six hours, following contact with another car.

It’s good to see the Delta Wing back, even though it still won’t classify in any of the categories the sport has to offer! But it’s just a damn cool sight seeing this unusual car on the track. If Batman was a Le Mans racer, he’d drive this.

Deltawing press release:

Japanese NISMO racing driver, Satoshi Motoyama, tried heroically to repair the impact damage by the side of the Le Mans circuit for 90 minutes before having to admit defeat, garnering massive support for the team from fans, whose demands for it to return to the racetrack will now be satisfied.

Existing race commitments mean that all three of the Nissan DeltaWing Le Mans drivers ? Motoyama, Marino Franchitti and Michael Krumm ? are unavailable for the prestigious Petit Le Mans ALMS race. Nissan’s original GT Academy champion, Spaniard Lucas Ordonez is set to race the car at Road Atlanta, along with American Le Mans Series 2011 PC class champion Gunnar Jeannette.

Darren Cox, General Manager, Nissan in Europe, said: “Le Mans was a huge success for us – the car did everything we wanted it to do and more, proving that the pioneering technology we were testing in the world’s most public laboratory works and is a viable option for the future sustainability of motorsport.

“The only thing that didn’t go our way was the way the race ended for us, which was entirely out of our control. Because we’d proven the technology worked, it was hard to be too disappointed, but we were blown away by the level of support and goodwill that came our way from the fans so now we feel we owe it to them to race again.

“I’m very proud that Lucas will get his chance in the car ? the GT Academy is a major innovation in motorsport that is making the elitist sport of motor racing genuinely accessible to everyone, including those who do not have access to big budgets and sponsorship. Lucas is living proof that the innovation works.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Gunnar to the Nissan DeltaWing team. He is a former American Le Mans Series champion and knows Road Atlanta like the back of his hand so he is the perfect addition to the squad.”

The team believes that the 1,000-mile, 10-hour Petit Le Mans race is the perfect event for Nissan DeltaWing to not only give fans the race finish they desire, but also demonstrate its prowess on a more traditional track, as opposed to the high-speed Le Mans circuit, which also utilises public roads.

The announcement comes as it is revealed that, as part of the ALMS merger with the other major sportscar series, GRAND-AM Road Racing, provision will be made for Nissan DeltaWing within the regulations of the resulting new championship, scheduled to start in 2014.

Panoz, who was behind the ‘Project 56′ organisation under whose banner the DeltaWing started its journey to Le Mans, said: “Petit Le Mans has built up a reputation as one of the largest sportscar races in the world. Every section of the Nissan organisation has supported this car and I think the fans will love getting to see what Racer magazine called a ‘gamechanger’.

“The DeltaWing can race in the 2013 American Le Mans Series and it is part of the merger agreement for ALMS and GRAND-AM. Safety and performance standards have to be achieved, but it needs to be reviewed. For 2014, the new series would incorporate Daytona prototypes, Le Mans prototypes, and maybe even a DeltaWing.”

Meanwhile, Nissan DeltaWing’s visionary creator, Ben Bowlby, said: “At Petit Le Mans, we will get the chance to show the US fans just how cool this car is but also the chance to prove that it works on a much tighter, twistier road course, rather than the flat-out, 300kmh, Le Mans-style racetrack. It’s important for us to gain in lap experience, testing and driver feedback and really validate the whole concept.”

Nissan became a founding partner in the DeltaWing project in March this year and the team then faced a major challenge to get the experimental Nissan DeltaWing car and its specially-developed 1.6-litre DIG-T Nissan engine, ready for the gruelling Le Mans 24 Hours.